People have been using tents for as long as fabric has existed. Tents provide shelter in the outdoors and are most appreciated in bad weather. In Rain, snow or wind, a tent can be a life saving shelter. One difficulty that has plagued tent use is the inability to easily and safely cook inside the tent. Being fabric, most tents are flammable. Thus, operating even a small stove inside a tent can be hazardous. Moreover, in high humidity or cold weather, the cooking process generates an enormous quantity of moisture, which can quickly soak the interior of a tent. Finally, stoves operated in a tent can generate excessive amounts of carbon monoxide which can be lethal. Thus, to provide a safe, practical means of cooking in a tent, two things are needed: first, some means to protect the fabric from the heat source. Second, a means is needed to safely and conveniently exhaust the excess heat, moisture and gases. Opening the tent doors in a gale is not a practical solution. Although this problem exists in all tents, it is especially so in modern backpacking tents. These tents are designed to be lightweight and are small. In winter conditions, two people in a tent might feel cramped. Cooking under these conditions is more difficult. Most often, campers are forced to cook outside the tent for safety and comfort.
Historically, people have designed systems for using common stoves in tents. These stoves use stacks that are passed through the walls or top of the tent using some type of modified "roof jack". Examples of this type of design are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 513,586, 522,483, 1,064,610, 1,111,384, and 2,601,865. These devices are primarily stack systems designed for large tents and would be difficult to adopt to today's backpacking style, where weight of equipment is at a premium.
Several types of folding portable stoves have also been patented. Examples of these include U.S. Pat. Nos. 669,281, 2,798,476, 4,489,706, and 5,203,316. All of these stoves appear portable, but are not designed to be used in tents.
The present invention overcomes the problems of safe cooking and proper ventilation. It consists of a lightweight, portable unit that will fit in a backpack. It is designed for use in the mountains, where lightweight equipment is essential. It has a burner unit that holds a common mountain stove burner such as those developed by MOUNTAIN SAFETY RESEARCH, or other lightweight backpacking type stoves. This burner unit vents to a stack that transmits the combustion gases and moisture safely outside the tent by means of a tent roof jack that protects the tent fabric from the heat.
It is an object of this invention to produce a tent stove suitable for use in backpacking type tents.
It is another object of this invention to produce a stove for tents that is lightweight, portable, and easy to assemble.
It is yet another object of this invention to produce a stove for use in backpacking that is safe to use under adverse conditions.